Meerut, Sep 5 (IANS) Belonging to a family of hangmen, Pawan Singh has been hired to execute death row convict Surender Koli in Meerut jail Sep 12, said jail superintendent S.M. Rizvi.
Koli was convicted for the murder of a girl Rimpa Halder who went missing in Noida adjoining Delhi in Dec 2006. After investigations by the police she was found to have been murdered by Koli. During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to a house in Noida where Koli worked as domestic help for businessman Moninder Singh Pandher who owned the house. Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death in the case but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld the death sentence of Koli.
Singh told IANS that he had inspected the gallows in the jail and made a few suggestions to the jail superintendent.
“I will be happy to hang Koli. It would be my first execution of a death warrant. Earlier I had accompanied my father and grandfather when they executed death warrants,” said Singh.
His father Mamu Singh hanged 14 criminals in various jails of Patiala, Jaipur, Meerut and Allahabad.
His grandfather Kallu Singh hanged Billa and Ranga, the killers of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra in 1981, and former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassins.
Koli was lodged in Dasna jail which does not have a gallows. So he was shifted to Meerut jail for the execution.
“He has been lodged in an isolation cell. He is being served normal food. His behaviour is normal. He is having meals regularly and reads a holy book which he is keeping with him. A news paper is also being provided to him,” said superintendent S.M. Rizvi.
The Supreme Court also upheld the death sentence.
After the President rejected his mercy petition recently, the local CBI court issued the warrant for his execution Sep 12.
